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Management of a PICC line

Posted By pegasussw83

"Management of a PICC line"

About: Broome Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

I had a Peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line with antibiotics, inserted by another hospital, for 28 days.

For the first 2 weeks I went to Broome Health Campus Emergency Department (ED) for my new baxter every morning. Most mornings I saw a different nurse that had different ways of changing my baxter. For example some nurses swabbed & flushed, other nurses didn’t do either and some swabbed only.

I also had some nurses who I felt were a little rude if I asked how much longer (I didn’t want to be there)  & I believe a nurse was on their phone texting whilst I was waiting for them to do my 1 minute job. I had a nurse tell me I couldn’t have the baxter changed in the dressing clinic but the dressing nurse told me I could if I didn’t want to wait in emergency.

After putting up with the first 2 weeks, I started going to the Dressing Clinic which I felt was much better as they did everything the same (which I believe was correct).

The last 3 days, the antibiotics weren’t going in as fast as they should & couldn’t draw blood back but flushed fine. I spent 4 hours in the hospital recently listening to different opinions and the next day I was sent back to ED to sort out why it’s not all going in over 24 hours.

The student doctor was great, he called the hospital where the PICC was inserted to get advice & was told to remove the PICC & continue with oral antibiotics for the last few days! My nightmare was over & I don’t need to visit the hospital daily!

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Responses

Response from Helen Fullarton, Coordinator of Nursing & Midwifery, Broome Hospital, WACHS KImberley 4 years ago
Helen Fullarton
Coordinator of Nursing & Midwifery, Broome Hospital,
WACHS KImberley

Manages the Nursing and Midwifery Services at Broome Hospital

Submitted on 27/12/2019 at 5:10 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 30/12/2019 at 9:13 AM

Dear pegasussw83,

Firstly I would like to thank you sincerely for taking the time to share your experience on Patient Opinion, apologies for the delay in replying to you. I am sorry the treatment you received was not to the standard you (or we all) expect when you came to Broome Hospital and there was differences in the care you received between hospital departments. It was also good to hear though, about the care you received in the dressing clinic and from the student Doctor. Thank you.

I have already shared your feedback with the managers of the departments you visited. The nurse managers will review and provide education for staff on the care and management of PICC lines. You are correct, there is a standard way of caring for a PICC line and we also audit the care we provide to make sure our staff follow this process.

Thank you also for raising the issue of staff texting while providing care to you – personal use of mobile phones during work time must be kept brief and preferably made during work breaks, it should certainly not interfere with patient care. All staff across Broome Health Campus will be reminded about use of mobile phones – both work-issued and personal phones.

I am very happy to discuss your visits to Broome Health Campus with you in person if you would like to do so. You can contact me by mobile 0408913638 or via email: helen.fullarton@health.wa.gov.au

Once again thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback and I hope you are recovered and feeling well again.

Kind regards

Helen Fullarton

Coordinator of Nursing & Midwifery

Broome Regional Health Campus

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